Cutting Through the Dark
by BeThePiano
Summary: He waits in the dark for the moments he has to stay by her side and make sure she's okay again. [Zombie Apocalypse AU. Fem!America/Canada. Short AmeCan one-shot. Equal amounts of hurt and comfort with a bit of romance.]


The whole apartment was quite. The tap wasn't dripping, the AC was off (it was _December_, for Christ's sake), and one could only hear the faint breathing of the couple living there if they were right next to them. He was still awake, though. How could he sleep? Vivid nightmares had haunted him for months on end, and had only recently stopped. But he still couldn't sleep, fearing they might come back, sending him into the spiraling insanity he has seen so many others go through.

He stared at the ceiling, counting the cracks and bumps. The clock beside his bed read 4:46 AM, and he'd been awake since twelve the previous day. He (along with her) never meant to stay up that late, and never meant to sleep the day away. It just happened. It seemed like a miracle, but she was soundly asleep, curled up next to him for the first time in what seemed like forever. She was usually very restless, as she shared his nightmares, too. But hers hadn't stopped, and she'd wake up screaming in the middle of the night, letting him hold her in his arms and kiss her forehead until she calmed down and fell back asleep, closer to him than before.

He hated seeing her that way. So helpless, so scared. It was so unlike her it, and it seemed weird, almost. She was usually so _brave_ and _heroic_ but lately she was much less than that; Quiet and reclusive and much more quick to defend herself. He was the same with few differences. Well, he'd always been that way, but during the few months he had spent with her, fighting for their lives, he'd been like how she formerly was. Stand-offish and cocky. That had deteriorated to nothing as he slipped back into his old self the closer and closer they came to the safe haven.

Her screams cut through the dark like a switchblade.

Tears were streaming down her face and she was shaking so much it was like she had just taken a dip in the Antarctic Tundra. He was quick to grab her, startled as he was every night, both their hearts beating fast. She was mumbling something but he couldn't make it out, her sobs cutting through and breaking off words as they racked her whole body. Her throat was raw when she finally quit screaming, and her shaking had stopped a little before he could tell her to start over. Different nightmare every night, after all.

"I need you to start over," he told her, rocking the both of them back and forth gently.

She shook her head. "It's worse tonight. I-I don't want to talk about it."

He muttered an "okay" because he knew what it was like to have something that horrible run through your mind. Visions of friends and love ones getting brutally slaughtered and eaten alive. Yourself just inches away from safety, only to be revived as one of the undead. The apocalypse had taken it's toll on everyone, even the ones who appeared to be the strongest.

A chorus of "It's going to be okay" was uttered into her ear more than a dozen times, and kisses were placed on her forehead between them. He finally got her to lay back down again, his arms around her and her head on his chest. They didn't close their eyes in attempt to sleep again, but yawns slipped between their teeth and out of their lips every now and then.

"I love you," she whispered into the darkness, taking a deep breath, inhaling the scent of him off his shirt.

"I love you, too," he whispered back, squinting to look at the clock on her side of the bed. Half past five, now. They'd be asleep again by 6:30, 8:00 at the latest, and awake at one or two in the afternoon. Everything would be okay after that, until it was time to go to sleep again, while he lay staring at the ceiling, waiting for her terrified screams to pierce his ears again, her shooting up in bed and shaking. He'd waited for her like this for almost ten months, even when he had his own demons in his head. And he'd wait for her like that, even if the nightmares didn't stop until the day he died.

**x-x-x-x**

**Wow, that was sort of depressing. But I've had this idea in my head for _months_ and I finally got around to writing it :D**


End file.
